This is Bar None’s digital reissue (along with four other albums from the same crew) of the Lawrence, Kansas-based punk band that was a snappy answer to Husker Du, Minutemen, that sort of thing. The jagged, wise-ass sound is, of course, less wide here, not that it had to be, but OK, sure, digital it is. This was the second full-length, which captured the band fresh out of their teens (if that), although Dean Lubensky sounds like a 60-year-old hollering at someone to get off his lawn in a rough, enraged holler throughout. This was all part of a movement to get punk deeper into the Midwest, which, as we know now, worked pretty well. Standard slam-dance fare, but the locals must have looked at them like they were Godzilla, as they do now out in Kansas — these guys even have a tribute band to head up the gaggle of bands comprised of the same lost teens these guys once were. There won’t be anything further from them, as they’re long disbanded, but this one’s a great throwback curio. B+

Dinosaur Jr., Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not (Jagjaguwar Records)CD Reviews: July 28, 2016

I’ve never been much into this legendary UMass-Amherst-hatched trio, being that in their early days there was a lot of local and worldwide competition in the area of jangly/loud/psychedelic indie rock — I literally threw albums from labels like Sub-Pop and SST in the trash if they didn’t grab me within 15 seconds. But getting to know the band’s debut album Dinosaur after never-mind-how-many-years is a revelation if you haven’t tried it. It had a woodsy, haunted, paisley vibe that was simultaneously fierce and vulnerable when it wasn’t being straight-out noisy/skronky. Black Lips and Warlock are the closest things to that these days, and that does take into account this new LP from the guys themselves, the follow-up to 2012’s I Bet on Sky, an arena-grunge-meets-Flaming Lips-meets-Tom Petty knuckleball that must have been what they were aiming for from the beginning. GAGOWYN picks up where that one left off, a Foo Fighters-fueled 1970s-metal trip opening things up (“Goin’ Down”), followed by a Pixies basher (“Tiny”) and the Goo Goo Dolls-ish “Be a Part.” If it weren’t for Mascis’ wobbly vocal control you’d be able to tell the kids it’s new Nirvana stuff, honestly — it’s that good (or bad, depending). A